Chief: Police force battles increased challenges

SAN ANGELO, Texas - Officers are "treading water" when it comes to responding to crime calls, and it's not because of the oil field, San Angelo Police Chief Tim Vasquez said.

"I would say that the crime rate is affected by the increase in population," he said. "Not all people who work in the oil field are bad people."

"When you bring that many people at one time you're going to see increases in crime. When you see that much money coming into our community you're going to see increases in crime. It's based on a lot of different things."

Vasquez spoke to about 170 people Tuesday at the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce's February luncheon, touching on the city's growth, crime statistics and how the department is reacting.

He showed slides citing that the overall crime rates decreased by 47.8 percent from 2003 until 2012. In 2013 they climbed 4.1 percent.

"I can tell you that the men and women of our organization are very well aware of that increase," he said. "They're taking it personally. They're doing all they can to battle that and continue to bring it back down."

Vasquez said methamphetamine and marijuana are still the most prevalent drugs in San Angelo, but officers have seen an increase in heroin arrests. Usually they make one or two a year, but in 2013 officers made four or five arrests.

He illustrated property crime by asking people to raise their hands if they had been burglarized.

Chamber President Phil Neighbors said hearing from the chief reiterated personal accountability when it comes to crime prevention — locking car doors, hiding belongings and making sure businesses have adequate security lighting, good locks and, in some cases, surveillance cameras.

"The more we do to prevent crime, the less we'll be a victim of it," Neighbors said.

"I think he did a good job of talking about the present and the future and anticipating growth."

When Vasquez took questions, the first one came from someone who wasn't playing "devil's advocate" but wanted to know about the department's operating budget. The attendee also asked whether Vasquez had a slide showing the salary levels agreed on in the last meet-and-confer session.

The meet-and-confer process allows police and the city to reach agreements on important employment issues. SAPD is seeking pay raises to improve officer retention and recruitment.

Vasquez said the total budget in 2003 was $9.9 million, and it now sits at $15.2 million. Ten years ago the operational budget made up 13 percent of the department's total budget, and now it's less than 10 percent. He ventured to say salaries across the city became a bigger part of the budget during that time.

"We always notice in the Q-and-A section is that there are business people and community people who are really thinking about whatever the topic is," Neighbors said. "Policing is like anything else — it has to run off a budget and it has to have cash flow. You could tell the chief had great interest and concern that it continues to happen in a productive way."

Pam Dutton said she thinks Vasquez does a "fantastic" job managing his department and keeping the public informed about what's going on.

In his presentation Vasquez said the department puts out more than 100 news releases a year — many about drug arrests. A majority of drug seizures occur during traffic stops, he said.

Dutton, who works in state Sen. Robert Duncan's office, also has been a business owner and knows the value of monitoring crime trends in her community.

As someone who has taught in a classroom for 31 years, she said it's important to have experienced people working for an organization. She sided with Vasquez when he brought up meet-and-confer negotiations.

Vasquez said he has assisted both the city and police union in the past and has stayed neutral, but he feels he needs to side with the officers during this last round of negotiations.

"Retention affects my ability to do the job that you elected me to do," he said.

City officials and officers look at retention rates differently, he said, with the city basing those rates on the past three years and the officers looking back to 2003. Vasquez said most of the officers who fall in the city's three-year category are still under contract and are not marketable because of their lack of experience.

"When you look at where we were over the last 10 years, the number that we keep is about 40 percent," he said.

Several officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths were investigated over the past several years. Vasquez said he would like to see a "stable and experienced workforce" handling calls.